Effective e-Government-2007

GOVERNMENT TO CITIZEN

We South Africans might feature at the top end of a global list for people who find fault with and complain about government, but it’s fair to say that frustration with the workings on government seems to be up there with death and taxes in the inevitability stakes just about everywhere on the planet. It doesn’t matter where you go, you’ll find people who would suggest that the phrase “workings of government” is, in itself, a contradiction in terms. Bureaucratic, bloated, wasteful, unresponsive and indifferent are other words likely to be used. All in all, it’s hard to escape the perception that governments are oblivious to citizens’ most pressing needs and concerns. And whether that assessment is fair or not, research from Deloitte reveals that citizens are increasingly expecting governments to deliver services as rapidly and effectively as the business world does – as the research puts it: if a bank can provide someone with a credit card in 48 hours, why should a citizen have to wait weeks for a birth certificate?

Or, if you’re a South African, months or even years... When, in November 2005 a man who had battled unsuccessfully for years to have an error on his ID Book corrected held a Home Affairs worker hostage using a toy gun, people were horrified but many jokingly said that they understood his frustration with a system that has been all too often characterised by poor customer service and a seeming lack of urgency.

A boon and a burden

The power of communications technologies are simultaneously a boon and a burden for governments. On the one hand, technology can really give governments a chance to deliver on their promises and improve services. On the other hand, as citizens become used to this concept in the private sector, they’re more alert to the fact that governments aren’t always putting their money where their mouths are and actually delivering. On a continent plagued with challenges and constantly labouring under the Damoclean sword of corruption, the growth in technology use represents a unique opportunity for both citizen and public servant alike to do the right thing.

While there are still some public officials out there labouring under the delusion that e-government means them posting their picture and life-story online, the majority have mercifully moved with the times and are entering into a more service-oriented frame of mind. In a wired world of social networking apps and Web 2.0 technologies, it is increasingly difficult for the bureaucrats to say they didn’t know what their citizens wanted. And for those citizens still without access to the tools of e-government, heightened awareness of the possibilities afforded by it is making them increasingly impatient on issues of infrastructure rollout.

Ten years ago, who could have predicted that issues of bandwidth and spectrum allocation would be on the pre-election agendas of many countries around the world? As the Meraka Institute’s Dr. Ntsika Msimang has put it, “e-government will not happen if the people are not connected.” So, what exactly should governments be doing about this? As will be seen, the key to excellence in Government-to-Citizen (G2C) delivery is as much about human behaviour as it is about technology.

It’s all about value. And trust.

Technology offers a classic win-win to governments: it allows them to streamline processes, access critical information online and improve on service delivery – and save taxpayers’ money in the process. As all fully-fledged democracies now recognise, the importance of an informed citizenry and transparent information are the very life-blood of what makes them tick. Citizen trust does not, however, necessarily follow out of good knowledge management systems. In a presentation to the Global Forum on Reinventing Government in Austria in 2007, Professor Fanie Cloete revealed that increased trust in government occurs “as a result of changes in the collective perceptions and opinions of the populace about the role of government in society.”

Such changes, says Cloete, can be facilitated by the provision of high-quality information to citizens about governmental problems and strategies. According to Prof Cloete’s findings, several conditions for success must exist before it can be expected that improved knowledge management will lead to better trust in government, among them:

• The processes as well as the content of governmental interventions must be appropriate to fulfil the government’s responsibilities to protect, regulate, develop and care for its society in such a way that its citizens are satisfied.

• If a democratic government cannot fully-satisfy the procedural or substantive demands or needs from its society (which is frequently the case in the face of resource constraints),

it should be able to explain to its citizens why this is the case, and suggest a process for how to make changes towards achieving policy goals over time. This implies a rational process of education and negotiation, leading to an agreement on the way forward.

• Such an agreement should then result in a knowledge-based relationship of trust between government and citizen, if the citizens perceive such an agreement to be in their collective interest and abide by government’s decisions and actions.

• Knowledge-based interactions between government and citizen in the 21st century knowledge society are best achieved through electronic means. The creation of electronic capacity, knowledge repositories, interaction and transactional channels are therefore prerequisites for trust-building in contemporary society.

Professor Cloete reported that, even in countries with low literacy rates, the advent of the information society has made it possible to reach citizens and improve levels of trust through information provision. The key to this, however, rests in empowering citizens by “creating a critical degree of electronic literacy [and to] establish reliable network channels to the community for purposes of knowledge dissemination and interaction, as well as within its own back offices in order to manage these processes effectively.”

According to the report, such citizen-empowerment “implies the creation of appropriate electronic communications systems accessible to all at the various levels required,” as well as instructing government officials in their use. This is, said Prof Cloete, a tall order “because it necessitates a paradigm shift in government thinking and practice about public services delivery and government spending priorities.” Essentially, trusted e-government delivery needs to operate closely on the time-honoured ideals of a working democracy: the knowledge that it’s always about representing the citizens to the very best of your ability. Everything else is either a bonus or just gravy.

Keeping pace with change

Technology has made the automation of once cumbersome processes possible, all the while making it increasingly possible for citizens and business to interact with their government electronically. For South Africa’s young democracy, keeping abreast of global best practice and emulating those countries who are getting it right is a major key to overcoming the developmental obstacles that stand between us and continued success as a nation. As part of this promise, it is vital that government can deliver on promises made to the electorate. During a DPSA briefing on the Governance and Administration Cluster in July 2006, it was reported that the underpinning documents of South Africa’s e-government Programme Framework had been completed and were being professionally edited. Addressing the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) in April 2007, Minister for Public Service and Administration said that this framework was now driving back-office integration and was going through a process of consultation at the local government level.

At a Cluster briefing in February 2007, Minister Fraser-Moleketi said the President had earmarked the Single Public Service as “an area for concerted action in the next 18 months” and that draft legislation had been developed for consultation during 2007. She added that integrated service delivery infrastructure would continue to be rolled out, particularly the Thusong/MPCC centres, Home Affairs offices and mobile units. A strategy to expand access for citizens to services would be implemented jointly by an inter-departmental team, while projects aimed at increasing the use of ICTs, such as Home Affairs’ “Track and Trace” system for tracing documents in the system were being implemented.

It’s tough at the top

Research conducted by Gartner says that 2005 was a turning point for European governments, having been the deadline set by many of them to achieve full (or close to it) electronic service delivery. Nonetheless, the same report also indicated that, despite healthy progress and consolidation for most, there was only “limited evidence of improved service levels and major take-up.”

Accenture research into customer service delivery in government for 2007 suggests that many are still wondering how to take e-government to the next level, with its findings that “governments have unintentionally widened the gap between service provision and citizen value” because they have focused primarily on front-end service, “fostering expectations of an entirely new customer experience” without making the cultural and infrastructural changes necessary to fully realise their vision. Further evidence that good G2G is at the heart of all the best e-government strategies.

Gartner has pointed to the unanticipated tightening of purse strings coupled with more cost-conscious administrations as among the key inhibitors. Accenture’s research adds the notion that many governments have managed the easier, sexier part and are now loathe to confront the difficulties inherent in transforming the backroom completely. In addition, many governments overlooked the true meaning of the digital divide as well as the continued importance of offering citizens a human interface.

Small bites make for big changes

Many administrations can be seen to have either tripped up on over-ambitious plans, biting off more than they could chew or failing to clearly-define how success was to be measured. They overlooked the central role played by citizen-centricity in any performance indicators. Others simply battled to get to grips with the pace of technological change. In the case of South Africa, it’s a mixture of all of the above, plus massive social challenges, a need for a change in culture among public servants, lack of skills, infrastructure...the list goes on. Small bites eventually make for big changes, however.

Accenture research suggest that high performers in the public sector base the value they create on two criteria: the outcomes they deliver and the cost-effectiveness achieved. Value is looked at from the citizen’s perspective; by focusing on it, these governments “strive not only to do the right things, but also to do them in the right way.” Accenture goes on to identify some common characteristics of the high-performance government:

• Citizen-centred and outcome-focused

• Capabilities and operational activities support the delivery of outcomes defined by their mission

• Measure performance based on those outcomes – not just input/output

• Committed to cost-effectiveness; they hold themselves accountable and make their operations and results transparent

• Innovative and flexible, continually striving to improve value delivery; able to respond to new challenges and opportunities

• Work in open and collaborative ways, understanding that their organisation is part of a larger system

• Cultivate working relationships with other agencies, organisations and stakeholders

• High performance governments reflect their enthusiasm for delivering public value, engaging both staff and stakeholders in active support of their missions.

GROWING GOOD GOVERNMENT

E-business principles and processes can facilitate good government in a number of ways. For obvious-enough reasons, when it comes to G2G delivery, no principle carries heavier weight than Customer Relationship Management (CRM). All research indicates that governments that embrace the principles of cross-government, multi-channelled, proactive, citizen-centricity are the ones also delivering greater value for stakeholders more cost-effectively, all the while prepared for new challenges.

Leadership in customer service is hallmarked by the kind of service that builds an innate and implicit sense of trust between citizens and the government that serves them. Get customer service right, and you’re well on the way to e-government success. As things stand, Accenture’s assessment of how individual countries measure up in the customer service maturity stakes puts South Africa last out of 22 countries surveyed – at a lowly 6%. First placed Singapore scored 89% while closer-to-us on the apples with apples front Brazil manages 20%, having come last in the 2005 survey (in which South Africa came second-last).

That we seem to be slipping behind even as countries we share common ground with are moving hasn’t been lost on the South African in the street: perception of government delivery has taken a turn for the worse and is cause for concern. When you consider that, in this case, we’re in the same pan of hot water as some of the leading countries, you get an idea of the lengths we have to go to when other people are complaining about the kind of service we can still only dream of.

Batho Pele is CRM

The lack of real understanding of what CRM is all about has been the failing point of many a well-intentioned project, both in the public and private sectors. Part of the problem is that people look at CRM and see only the technologies that support it, it’s like trying to drive a car without the petrol. Automating a process or applying a high-tech solution something that’s already a mess only speeds up the rate at which you can make a small problem even worse. And on you go.

CRM brings together information from across all data sources, inside and outside of government, to offer a single, holistic view of each citizen in real time, facilitating speedy-yet- informed decisions from those operating at the citizen-facing coalface. Both in business and in government, CRM has become a customer/citizen-centric philosophy, the key to the success of which are people, processes and technology. CRM might not have been developed with government in mind, but they make a perfect match. Implemented in government, CRM optimises the following:

• Increased citizen participation and interaction

• Development of satisfactory government-citizen relationships

• Delivery of high-quality, consistent citizen experience

• Continuous learning about citizens’ needs and communicating those throughout government

• Spurring on the delivery of products and services tailored to meet citizens’ needs

• Improved cost management.

The quest for good customer service

Most of the positive discussions of CRM emanating from the business world wax lyrical on its capacity for driving down costs, a consequence of which is a heavy-orientation towards self-service. This is fine for government too – but only if self-service is the best option for the citizen: if that makes things better for them, so be it. If the sole or main motivation is that it makes things better for government, however, give it a miss.

For those acquainted with its key principles, Batho Pele no doubt sounds a lot like CRM. That’s largely because it is like it. Developed by the Department of Public Service and Administration, the Batho Pele White Paper of 1997 was all about the instigation of a government-wide performance culture and ethos. It requires national and provincial governments to develop performance management systems that include the setting of service delivery indicators and performance measurements. Good customer service lies at the heart of this and all public servants are required as a condition of their service to practice the principles of Batho Pele, which are:

• Consultation: Citizens should be consulted about the level and quality of the public services they receive and, wherever possible, should be given a choice about the services that are offered.

• Service standards: Citizens should be told what level and quality of public service they will receive so they are aware of what to expectation

• Access: All citizens should have equal access to the services to which they are entitled.

• Courtesy: Citizens should be treated with courtesy ad consideration.

• Information: Citizens should be given full, accurate information about the public service they are entitled to receive.

• Openness and transparency: Citizens should be told how national and provincial departments are run, how much they cost and who is in charge.

• Redress: If the promised standard is not delivered, citizens should be offered an apology, a full explanation and a speedy and effective remedy; and when complaints are made, citizens should receive a sympathetic, positive response.

• Value for money: Public services should be provided economically and efficiently in order to give citizens the best possible value for money

E-government isn’t about eliminating or replacing human interaction, but it’s easy to see how technology could facilitate the implementation of a ‘People First’ ethos, providing citizens, businesses and employees with cleaner, more efficient public administration in locations that are more convenient for them.

In order to achieve high-levels of customer-centricity, Gartner research suggests that governments become ‘agile’, to meet changing demands and expectations. The research points to the ‘strategic imperative’ of getting to grips with the fact that government is a political organisation in which the elected officials are ultimately accountable to the customers and voters and that this accountability should be acknowledged in the capacity of government for agility in responding to constituent needs.

Sense and sensibility

Gartner research indicates that it is vital that government leaders are able to recognise – and use – the tools required to create an agile, efficient government. These tools may not be the same as those required for operational management, but leaders will know the difference and appreciate the capabilities. Gartner’s five critical elements of agility are:

• Sense: The awareness that a problem, challenge or new situation exists, as well as an awareness of some of the metrics that measure the extent of the problem.

• Strategy: Any organisation must have in place a governance to set strategy. This can be as broad and long term as a legislative body but it must also enable real-time policy decisions for unanticipated changes in the environment.

• Decide: Someone must be empowered to make decisions. This may require the authority to reallocate money and personnel to solve a problem in a way that may be different than was originally budgeted for.

• Communicate: There must be a formal communication method to provide the necessary information to those who will execute the changes.

• Act: Those who must execute must recognise the legitimate authority that authorised the changes and be empowered to make decisions about the use of resources.

Stay in touch

Achieving customer-centric agility involves governments understanding that, while selfservice is desirable in many cases, e-government strategies have to recognise that there are times when human intervention is required. That said, reducing human interaction can streamline productivity. Nonetheless, programmes should be designed around recognition of the fact that the central precept of e-democracy is the direct link that it provides citizens with to government, offering them the opportunity to participate in the workings of their country, beyond just turning up to vote in elections. Politicians and administrators should seek out the public’s opinion on a variety of issues and allow people to have a say in policy making. Gartner suggests that this last approach – taking constituent views into account – is a cornerstone of any strategy to create an agile government.

Government-to-Citizen e-government drives access to relevant information and makes government more accountable to its citizens, providing information that is genuinely useful rather than based around what is available in the silos of the state departmental bureaucracy. South Africa’s government has made the decision to ameliorate the silo effect by organising citizen-information according to individual and corporate ‘life episodes’ (or BMDs – births, marriages and deaths), rather than according to civil service departments. In this way, it hopes to eliminate the ‘that’s not my department, try the next counter’ mentality.

The gateway to national government

The national government’s Batho Pele Gateway Service is part of this commitment – information is organised around life events as well as around requirements for both businesses and foreigners. The Web site is available in all 11 official languages of the country (up from seven in 2006) and is complemented by a call centre that also operates in the citizen’s choice of seven of the official languages. Additionally, the decision to prevent municipalities from being spread across more than one province is another application of this notion of streamlining delivery and removing opportunities for confusion.

It’s clear that the commitment and willingness are there. But have we moved away from talking and into action?

A single portal for those in the real world

Accenture research indicates that the highest performers in the public sector base the value they create on two criteria: the outcomes they deliver and the cost-effectiveness they achieve. That value should be viewed almost entirely from the perspective of the citizen – any country’s most important stakeholder. Cost effectiveness should ideally be seen as an added bonus – although it is often a driver of change and the streamlining of processes.

Best practice examples from around the world indicate clearly that e-government delivers value and significantly improves service and the ease with which citizens can interact and access information and entitlements. There’s only so much information that can be put online; eventually, people will expect to be able to do something with it. It’s fine to post a map on the Internet offering directions to your offices, but when the person visiting your site is a busy working mother looking to download an application form…

A reasonable gap?

Observers have pointed to the gap that continues to exist between dealing with government in the real world and functioning as an ordinary citizen in the online world. Think about it, anyone can buy a car online, but you still need to stand in a queue to renew your licence. It is in this area that the concept of self-service online comes into its own – at ITWeb’s 2006 ICT in Local Government conference, then SITA Chief of Business Operations, Noedine Isaacs-Mpulo pointed to the self-service example of Canada as a best practice to follow, offering the example of their ‘I’ve lost my wallet’ application, which allows citizens to fill out a single form online to get all aspects of their identity re-issued. All of this can be done in a single portal, on a single screen.

Brown University’s 2007 Global E-Government Survey shows that, of all the Web sites examined, only 28% offered services that are fully executable online, down 1% on the 2006 figure but still an improvement on 2005’s 19%. Of the groups offering online services, 11% were found to offer just one service, 4% two and 13% offered three or more. The biggest point of all, perhaps, is the fact that this still leaves 78% of governments offering no truly online services at all. Among the most common services offered are voter registration, visa application/passport application or renewal and online job applications; online tax filing is common, perhaps for obvious reasons and underlining that, where the motivation is present, mountains can be moved. The Netherlands even offers an online ombudsman service, which accepts complaints and submissions via the Internet. In South Africa, the office of the Public Protector (mandated by the Constitution) allows citizens to send emails or file their complaints online at www.publicprotector.org.

When it comes to actually “listening” online to citizens, 42% of the governments surveyed in the Brown document offered areas to post comments in ways other than email – e.g. Message boards and chat rooms – up from 33% the previous year. Such facilities allow citizens of those countries to have their say in issues facing individual departments and state agencies. In South Africa, we haven’t quite got this concept online yet, although the Presidential Imbizo initiatives, through which the president visits local communities and engages face-to-face with stakeholders is a good start, as are the cabinet lekgotla meetings.

Local experiences

When it comes to email, while many of South Africa’s public servants and representatives give prominence to email or feedback links on their sites, the rate of response is disappointingly low. It’s all well and good to offer a point of contact, but if there’s no inclination to respond, it’s pointless. Worthy of a positive mention in this regard is the “contact the Mayor” link on the City of Cape Town site, from which a response to a query was received, albeit in 10 days. Direct emails to some representatives at eThekwini were responded to promptly also. According to the UN Global E-Government Readiness Report for 2005, the UK rates highest in terms of feedback delivery and provision, with Singapore also scoring very highly. The report says that the latter has a “strong online presence” that is multi-faceted and “stems from commitment, as well as continuing progress across all areas.” The UN report points towards excellence in Singapore’s maintenance of up-to-date sites as further evidence of excellence.

Why are you waiting?

In many countries, there’s still too much of a difference between standing in line and transacting online. Depth of service is a vital component of good e-government online delivery – when citizens can get online the sort of service they can avail of in line, you’re getting there. In a recent Accenture report, South Africa was revealed to have 77% of its services online – not bad at all considering that 20 of the 22 countries surveyed had at least 80% of national services available online. In the United Kingdom, Local e-government Minister Jim Fitzpatrick announced in November 2005 details of a national campaign to raise public awareness and use of e-Services offered by local councils. The campaign is called ‘Lose the Queues’ and is geared towards showing people the benefits of accessing services online – such as flexibility and convenience.

Ideally, co-ordinating all online services into a single platform and underlining all delivery electronically is the way to go. Accenture research earmarks the www. australia.gov citizen portal as an example of best practice in this regard. On it, over 700 government sites are connected, alongside selected state and territory resources. According to the research, this methodology is paying off, with increased usage to the tune of a 7% visitor increase each month, with a decrease in reliance on the telephone channel: Accenture reported a decrease in phone use from 75% to 70%, with numbers using email or SMS going up from 16% to 23%. Of course, there’s little point in encouraging citizens to make use of online services if these services don’t exist in the first place...

Achieving customer service maturity

Unfortunately, when it comes to what Accenture calls ‘customer service maturity’ – the extent to which governments have reached a full understanding that e-government is only one component of citizen-focused, cross-government services that should be communicated to the citizen - South Africa scored a paltry 16%. Not that others were doing a whole lot better, with an average of 39%. Only Canada scored more than 50%, a reflection of its status as a world leader when it comes to e-government. Who wants to follow when you can lead the way? Those in the know understand that it’s not only about the technology – that’s just the vehicle for change – it’s all about developing a new vision of leadership in pro-active customer service, offered across a variety of channels. Central to this is the ability to deliver service efficiently and cost-effectively, in a way that is tailored to the needs and circumstances of every citizen. Best practice indicates that this can only be achieved through pro-active government communication and education about government services.

In South Africa, we have the right attitude – what we’re sorely lacking is a sense of forward movement and action. To be fair, there is an extra obstacle governing effective communication and e-government initiatives– the vast majority of our citizens lack access to technology, adding an extra barrier to be overcome if e-government is to reach all our people, equally. On the upside, technology allows us to bring services to those living in areas that have traditionally been marginalised by their remote location. But such facilities and capabilities are only as good as the policy behind them and the political will to make them work.

The sole port of call

For many, the intentions-based government portal is the bedrock of online e-government service provision. Its ‘joined-up’ (G2G) government in action, requiring as it does the sharing of information across a variety of sources and departments. Repeatedly, it’s been proven that a plethora of disparate Web sites, each directing users from one to the other, merely serves to replicate traditional structures, failing to take into account customer needs. Merely publishing information, while not entirely useless, does not satisfy a citizen’s need to transact and enquire – the primary reason most people deal with government in the first place.

E-government leaders aren’t the ones who fully exploit the potential of portals. The vision to strive for is one where a national portal draws on information from the municipalities, provincial legislatures and all the way to the very top of national government. Sweden, a world leader in e-government and widely-regarded for its cross-government co-operation, has as part of its central vision the aim of genuine one-stop service for citizens, i.e. regardless of the issue, citizens should only ever have to make one point of contact with government.

The South African government’s re-launched and rejuvenated Batho Pele National Gateway portal (www.services.gov.za), aims to give citizens round-the-clock access to a range of services via an integrated one-stop service centre. Unfortunately, it seems stuck on its first phase, which was about focusing on better information about government’s services. It does this reasonably well, but there are only so many policy or financial report PDFs a citizen can download, sooner or later, online transactions have to come into play which, at time of writing, has not happened – despite an original proposed date of 2005. One target that has been met, however, is the provision of information in all eleven of the country’s official languages.

Categorising service

True to government’s stated plans, the Batho Pele site offers a citizen-centric approach, divided into ‘Services for people’, ‘Services for organisations’ and ‘Services for foreign nationals’, with each one sub-categorised according to the life events model. Through the site, citizens have ready access to information regarding giving birth, being a parent, education and training, money and work, or retirement and old age.

The portal is complemented by a government magazine, Vuk’uzenzele, which, in President Mbeki’s words is an ‘addition to the arsenal of information tools to bring you information you can use. Its name and its content speak of a partnership that we must continually forge – between government and all citizens – in building a South Africa that truly belongs to all.’ The magazine, published by the GCIS, is available in all 11 official languages – it can be downloaded and read online, or physical copies can be found by calling the Batho Pele contact centre on 1020. An email request for subscriptions can also be sent to vuk’ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and while, last year it was reported that an email request for a subscription seemed to have fallen through the cracks, regular copies of the publication have since been arriving, without any further follow-up.

LEADING FROM THE PROVINCES

As is often the case when it comes to e-government, the national sphere stands to learn a lot from what’s happening in the provinces. Local and Provincial governments are often in a better position to listen to citizens and access grassroots needs, opinions and ideas. Leading the pack in the portal stakes is the Cape Gateway initiative. It’s difficult to discuss e-government without citing case studies and initiatives from the Western Cape, which has shown leadership in many aspects of e-government and bridging the Digital Divide – so much so that Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, in her address to the Nedlac ICT Annual Forum in January 2005 lauded it as “a frontrunner in South Africa’s National ICT Strategy”. Two years on and it’s still the case, although the City of Johannesburg site, www.joburg.co.za offers an excellent example from the municipal front line.

The Cape Gateway

The brainchild of the Provincial Government of the Western Cape (PGWC), the Cape Gateway initiative (www.capegateway.gov.za) was launched in June 2003. The portal offers over 30,000 pages of information on government services, projects, facilities, contracts, jobs and tenders. Using the ‘life events model’ to base information around easy-to-navigate categories such as birth, marriage etc., the portal is very much a citizen-focused initiative, which is in line with international best practice. Indeed, the initiative has been the recipient of several accolades, both domestically and internationally. A unified appearance and theme add to the best practice model of keeping users abreast of where they are and what they might expect. Initiatives such as the Ulwazi Resource Centre keep province social development employees in the loop on the latest information as well.

Early phases of the Cape Gateway project involved walk-in information centres and a client contact centre, and in April 2004, the initiative launched its trilingual Web portal (www.capegateway.gov.za). Through these media, the province has provided the first step in a staged introduction of provincial e-government for the people. The site continues to receive in excess of 50 000 unique hits per month, the call centre more than 14 000 calls...but transactionally speaking, citizens of the Western Cape are offered little, which is disappointing.

The centre for e-Innovation

In addition to the Gateway project, the Western Cape’s Centre for e-Innovation (Ce-I) acts as the primary driver of e-government strategy for the province and focuses on leveraging the symbiotic role between ICT and Government so central to e-government success. In fulfilling its role, the Ce-I has six main divisions: Education; Cultural Affairs and Sport; Health, Social Services and Housing; Policy and Strategy; Economic Governance and Administration; Planning and Development; Transversal Infrastructure. Through a variety of projects, the Ce-I offers clear indication that it understands the close connection between transforming the way government works and uplifting the lives of citizens.

Other innovative initiatives

At the national level, a Governance and Administration cluster briefing in February 2007 reported initiative in out-of-the-box thinking when it comes to micro-lending institutions. The South African Micro-Finance Apex Fund (SAMAF, operated by the DTI) and the Micro- Agricultural Finance Scheme of South Africa (MAFISA, run by the Dept of Agriculture) have been battling to cope with the pressures of high demand for their services since launching in 2006. The proposed solution utilises good G2G thinking to drive good G2C delivery: the alignment of the projects with service delivery initiatives likes the Thusong/MPCC centres and Community Development Worker (CDW) programme to alleviate the pressure and streamline service delivery.

Dovetailing with initiatives such as this is the cluster’s “Project Consolidate” and the Five Year Local Government Strategic Agenda, geared towards improving local government capacity. According to Minister Fraser-Moleketi’s briefing on the topic, each of these local government support interventions are “firmly rooted in the inter-governmental relations framework”, allowing for the enhanced mobilisation and organisation of national and provincial government in the task of mainstreaming hands-on support to municipalities. According to the report at the cluster briefing, 281 experts had been deployed to 85 Project Consolidate municipalities by the end of 2006. Among the key benefits accruing from these deployments were:

• Augmentation of technical, financial, planning, project management and other specialist skills in targeted municipalities.

• Acceleration of service delivery through unblocking projects that had stalled

• Local Economic Development Strategies have either been compiled or are going through that process

• Thanks to the establishment of financial systems and audit queries, revenue in a number of municipalities has improved substantially

• Involvement of key non-governmental stakeholders in supporting local government has improved and takes place in a more organised manner.

Feeling the e-government pain? Blame Canada...

E-government leaders the world over have either established or are working towards intentions-based, user-friendly portals, the design of which extends into vertical applications. This transforms the portal into virtual agencies that hide the complexity of government from the citizen, clustering functions according to customer needs, regardless of the agency or branch of government involved. As suggested in the G2G and G2B sections of this book, this gold-standard of online G2C service requires high levels of organisational and cultural change.

By all accounts, Canada is considered a best practice champion when it comes to service and information portals. Its government portal, www.canada.gc.ca offers a huge range of on-and-offline services, including the impressive ‘Consulting With Canadians’ site (www.consultingcanadians.gc.ca) that actively encourages citizens to take part in the decision-making process. According to a variety of commentators, Canada’s site rivals any other formal feedback mechanism in the world and makes a sustained effort to disclose as much information as possible about its initiatives, therein fulfilling another best-practice aspect of e-government: the effective communication and advertising of services to citizens, across a variety of channels.

A further illustration of Canada’s best practice approach is the manner in which it has integrated its Web sites in a coherent, easy-to-navigate fashion – a level of integration that the UN believes is still lacking in most nations, not least because it is difficult to achieve. But Canada has managed this through the standardisation of all national sites, giving them the same look and feel, as well as instituting standardised architecture.

Small can mean big

The fact that political will and innovation can override many of the challenges facing effective e-government implementation is evident in the tiny island country of Malta’s achievements. The UN rates its national site, www.gov.mt, as an ‘excellent portal’ that has clearly advanced into the transactional stage. Indeed, the country’s e-government programme has a very strong focus on the transactional element of online delivery.

In addition to a feedback service, citizens can also make use of the innovative ‘Progress Made’ tracking system that allows them to monitor e-government outreach and keep the various bodies of state on their toes. Citizens can register in order to “log into my e-services” whenever they visit the site in order to access personally-relevant information.

Building e-services for everyone

Despite the significant progress that has been made, despite all the words of encouragement and support, despite the hard work and innovative thinking of citizens with vision and commitment to make a difference, one simple fact remains: lack of infrastructure, education and capacity continue to be serious barriers to the success and expansion of Government-to- Citizen e-government in South Africa.

The electronic delivery of services to citizens is nigh impossible in communities that have little or no electricity or landline telephone access, let alone the hardware that goes with it (or the means to purchase it). Previously disadvantaged and marginalised communities with high levels of unemployment and unsatisfactory access to education and health care perhaps stand to gain the most from what technology has to offer, even at the simplest level of the state effectively delivering financial and other aid to those most in need of it.

South Africa’s historically low Internet penetration (and the high telecoms costs that, despite constant agitation and seemingly endless efforts to address them, continue to contribute to the continuation of this situation) and poor infrastructure outside of the main urban areas have forced those in power to consider more innovative and nontraditional ways of providing online access to services to all the people, equally. Given the high penetration rates of cellular technology, it’s worth considering this route as a means of accessing greater numbers of people; that said, there are only so many kinds of information that people can wish to access using a tiny cell phone screen – it’s hardly the best method for, say, filling out an online form, although it might be a useful way of ordering one. Batho Pele can only become a reality when everyone has the chance to avail of it.

THE PARTNERSHIP PRINCIPLE

In recognition of this fact, government is collaborating with the private sector in order to rollout and support its vision for e-government. A case in point is the Centre for Public Services Innovation (CPSI), a government agency tasked with developing multi-channel access. The CPSI has developed the e-government Knowledge Exchange, designed to nurture knowledge sharing and support across government departments and agencies and between the public and private sectors.

In support of initiatives such as those at the CPSI, the government has thrown its weight behind efforts such as the Multi-Purpose Community Centres (MPCCs) – now called Thusong Centres, this being the Sesotho word for a place to get help- in order to make Internetbased information and services accessible to those living in rural and poor communities. The Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) is behind the development of the MPCCs, which offer community access to information, training, resources, services and facilities in a single location, all in partnership with community-based organisations, NGOs and local businesses offering access to computers, fax and Internet.

As of March 2007, there were 96 currently centres in operation, but the aim is to expand this to 284 by 2014, with each municipality having its own MPCC/Thusong. Workshops and training days for centre managers have been held to help not only with skills but also with promoting alignment and co-ordination as well as project management skills. The centre managers are employed by the municipalities but work in close partnership with the GCIS. The Web site is at www.thusong.gov.za

From Post Office to Digital Doorway

The Public Internet Terminals (PIT) initiative was launched in 1998 as a joint initiative by the Department of Communications and the South African Post Office (SAPO). The project aimed to provide multimedia kiosks in post offices and MPCCs around the country, offering access to information, e-mail facilities, job searching, educational content and business information. The concept was designed to offer accessible information and technology to all, but it has had its critics, mostly based around the fact that many of the kiosks have failed to stand up to the rigours of heavy use. Nonetheless, SAPO’s Annual Report for 2006 indicates that 700 of these have, or are about to be, rolled out, indicating that there is at least a commitment to making what could be a very valuable e-government tool work.

A more successful initiative between the government and post office has been the ‘Paymaster to the Nation’ project. The scheme, geared towards making life a lot easier for rural citizens entitled to state pensions and welfare grants, uses smart card technology to link funds paid into a Postbank account to their rightful recipient. The smart card bears the beneficiary’s fingerprint details and photo, therein eliminating the possibility of fraud while extending the benefits of banking to communities that do not meet the requirements to open an account at a commercial bank. Those participating earn interest on their money and can access it from ATMs or any post office branch, ending the long trek to the nearest large town for many rural dwellers. The success of the scheme is evinced in the Post Office’s 2006 Annual Report, which reports a 13% increase in accounts, up to a value of R270 million.

On a separate note, SAPO’s partnership with local municipalities to process service repayments has seen 33% of municipalities brought into the net, with a target of 66% to be met. 202 419 grant recipients have registered for the biometric registry. Citizens Post Offices (a joint venture with the Department of Communications) are also being rolled out, which will offer rural citizens the chance to access services in additional to traditional postal offerings – such as telephones, fax, photocopying, printing, e-mail and Internet facilities. Facilities have been rolled out at, among others, King William’s Town, George, Thaba and Flagstaff. It is envisaged that rural citizens and entrepreneurs will be able to leverage these facilities and offer professional-looking documentation in support of their business aims.

Digital doorways to e-government

The Department of Science and Technology/CSIR’s Digital Doorway project is all about bringing multimedia kiosks to remote and disadvantaged areas, facilitating skills development, promoting access to information and driving e-education initiatives. On the education front, the Digital Doorway initiative is built on the concept of Minimally Invasive Education (MIE) as the ideal way to promote technology use among school children who have never previously had access to it. Essentially, MIE involves just letting them loose with it, and allowing them to discover things for themselves. The Digital Doorways (www.digitaldoorway.co.za)  are based on the successful ‘Hole in the Wall’ projects in India and all the kiosks use free/open source software to allow users to experiment and learn without formal training.

The first Digital Doorway was installed in Cwili Village in the Eastern Cape in 2002 and, by early 2006, terminals had been deployed at 24 sites across the nine provinces, with more planned; at time of writing, 122 systems offering 3-and-4 terminals per unit had been commissioned and rollout was underway throughout 2007. The initiative’s Web site offers information for users wishing to locate the facility nearest them. The kiosks come in single seat, three or four-seat format and wheelchair/disabled access units are also being made available. All of the kiosks and their components are vandal-and-water-proof and are reported to be holding up very well – the kiosks themselves can’t be opened. Each one runs a GNU/Linux distribution with the KDE desktop interface (for which language modules have been added for Zulu, Xhosa, Venda, Setswana and Afrikaans, although English is predominantly used.).

In August of 2005, all the Digital Doorways received a hardware and software upgrade. In addition to the originally-available content, users are now able to access 16Gb of open source encyclopaedia from Wikipedia and more than 10 000 free books from Project Gutenberg. In 2007, five Digital Doorway sites in KZN connected to a trial wireless mesh network that allowed interconnectivity between digital doorways.

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

There is a lot of work being done, and plenty of vision, but South Africa still has a long way to go in terms of fully-fledged, electronic G2C service provision. The most significant roadblocks to effective e-government continue to be infrastructure, education and workplace culture within the public service -although it has to be said that progress is being made and the government continues to state its commitment to this.

The impending arrival of the Second National Operator (SNO) Neotel on the consumer market, the ongoing de-regulation of the telecoms market and, for all the controversy about it, the impending establishment of Infraco (the stated aim of which is to guarantee available infrastructure to drive down broadband prices) should see our history of high Internet and landline telephone costs at the very least challenged. Municipalities such as Knysna, eThekwini and Cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg are working on self-provisioning and rolling out their own high speed wireless networks – all of which can help drive down costs and increase the sort of competition that is good for e-government-to-Citizen delivery. The Electronic Communications Act can be seen to underline the taking of the initiative on bringing genuine connectivity to areas that have traditionally been left behind when it comes to technology. In allowing local and provincial governments to offer improved services to citizens through a less-straitened regulatory environment, the government can at last be seen to have removed a significant obstacle to successful Government-to-Citizen initiatives. Now, all we need is to be able to start transacting...